Filling the Night-Time with Discussion

Photo by me

Everyone has their way of filling their break time. Some choose to relax, lie down or enjoy the evening outdoors. To fill this night's rest, we had a light discussion on literary writing led by my wife. Due to the rainy weather and some of them living far from Meulaboh City, not all participants were able to attend.

This is a literary writing class that has been going on since last year online. This class is specially mentored by Azhari Aiyub, the best writer from Aceh. There are 15 participants in this class, who are Basajan members and graduates of the Basajan Creative School (BCS) writing class. This literature class is given free of charge to the participants.

Tonight, my wife initiated collecting them to evaluate the progress of each participant's task. Each participant is required to complete one literary story based on the theme they have submitted in the previous online class. These manuscripts will later be collected and published in book form.

The discussion lasted for two hours, the participants were asked to convey various obstacles faced in completing the task. Of all the participants, almost all of them had the same problem, namely building a plot for their story. Indeed, the plot becomes difficult and challenging for the writer in literary writing. The plot is not limited to the sequence of stories but must be able to relate cause and effect and the time sequence between events in the story. The plot will greatly affect the overall story so that the resulting literary work becomes interesting.

When a writer has good plot planning, then he can easily determine the storyline. Starting from the introduction of the character, the introduction of the problem, the peak of the problem, to the end of the story. In addition, the plot will also help the author in compiling the storyline. Do we want to tell sequentially from beginning to end, flashback with an introduction to the problem first, or with a mixed plot.

After listening to various explanations from my wife, the participants began to understand every problem they faced for their stories. Even though my wife had the flu and was tired after a long day's activities, she seemed very eager to explain every question that was asked. Rahmat Trisnamal and I, sitting not far from them, just listened to the discussion process.

Photo by me

Activities like this are not new to us. Even though we are busy with various activities during the day, this does not dampen our enthusiasm to share. Even on other nights, usually Sunday nights, we also often hold discussions and watch movies with the children from the orphanage on the second floor of our house, which is also the secretariat of the Basajan Community.

There is always pleasure and satisfaction in being able to set aside time to discuss and share with them. This method is also like a therapy to unwind after a long day at work.

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@djunmul